Le Fooding Takes Manhattan: Two Weekends of Surreally Fine Dining

This year, Le Fooding (the company behind France’s anti-Michelin food guides and festivals) is bringing its third annual American gastronomic celebration to Manhattan. Over the course of two weekends in September, the group will host events with phenomenal food and potent cocktails, music performances and DJ sets, in unexpected and intimate settings all over the city.

Le Fooding kicks off on September 17 with its Campfire Session, happening at a semi-hidden lot on Elizabeth Street in Nolita that’s usually populated by garden sculptures and birdbaths. Super-chefs (such as wd-50’s Wylie Dufresne, Dante Fried Chicken’s Dante Gonzales, and Iñaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand) and gourmand musicians (including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy) will prepare a five-star feast for 250 guests, and mixologists Richard Boccato and Sasha Petraske will keep libations flowing with Jameson-based signature cocktails to the sounds of DJ Nancy Whang, French hip-hop DJ Mehdi, and Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche. And save room for dessert—the brothers behind Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream are creating a surprise flavor just for the event.

The following weekend, Le Fooding will open a pop-up restaurant in Chelsea’s Honey Space gallery where thirteen chefs will participate in Exquisite Corpse, a version of the game of the same name first made famous by French Surrealists. The space will remain open continuously for 52 hours, with each cook designated a four-hour window in which to prepare a four-course meal for guests—using a bit of stock from their predecessor’s meal in their own dishes, therefore passing an “edible corpse” from plate to plate. (Note to the queasy: Le Fooding founder Alexandre Cammas assures that the traveling ingredients will remain fresh for up to 72 hours.) The star chefs include such culinary heavyweights as The Dutch’s Andrew Carmellini and Adeline Grattard of Yam’Tcha. Del Posto’s Brooks Headley, the sole pastry chef on board, admits he’s nervous about incorporating elements from his predecessors’ menus. “I could be pretty screwed,” he concedes, “but that’s part of the challenge.”

A limited number of advance tickets (a total of ten tickets for each event) have been made available to Vogue readers. Click on the links below to purchase:Campfire SessionExquisite Corpse